Phylogeny of Australasian agamid lizards based on nuclear and mitochondrial genes: implications for morphological evolution and biogeography
TLDR
Tree topology, inferred divergence dates, palaeogeographical and palaeoclimatic data are all consistent with Miocene immigration into Australia from the north by mesic forest ecomorphs, followed by initial diversification in mesic habitats before radiation into xeric habitats facilitated by increasing aridity.Abstract:
Recent mtDNA phylogenies of Australasian agamid lizards are highly incongruent with existing morphological views. To resolve this discrepancy we sequenced two nuclear gene regions, c-mos and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). These were highly concordant with each other and the mtDNA phylogeny, but not the morphology. A combined molecular analysis reveals substantial hidden support (additional phylogenetic signal that emerges only when the data sets interact in a combined analysis). Bayesian posteriors, and a partitioned bootstrap procedure introduced here, indicate strong support for most nodes. The resultant tree implies extensive morphological homoplasy, with many genera emerging as non-monophyletic (Amphibolurus, Rankinia, Ctenophorus, Physignathus, Diporiphora). The water and forest dragons (Physignathus and Hypsilurus) form a paraphyletic basal assemblage to the more derived Australian forms such as Amphibolurus and Ctenophorus, which include almost all the xeric taxa. However, the thorny devil Moloch horridus is a basal lineage and not closely related to the other arid forms. Tree topology, inferred divergence dates, palaeogeographical and palaeoclimatic data are all consistent with Miocene immigration into Australia from the north by mesic forest ecomorphs, followed by initial diversification in mesic habitats before radiation into xeric habitats facilitated by increasing aridity. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 93, 343–358.read more
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A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes
TL;DR: A new large-scale phylogeny of squamate reptiles is presented that includes new, resurrected, and modified subfamilies within gymnophthalmid and scincid lizards, and boid, colubrid, and lamprophiid snakes.
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Birth of a biome: insights into the assembly and maintenance of the Australian arid zone biota.
Margaret Byrne,David K. Yeates,Leo Joseph,Michael R. Kearney,J. M. Bowler,Martin Williams,S. J. B. Cooper,Stephen C. Donnellan,J. S. Keogh,Remko Leys,Jane Melville,Daniel J. Murphy,Nicholas Porch,Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll +13 more
TL;DR: This review highlights the opportunities that development of arid conditions provides for rapid and diverse evolutionary radiations, and re-enforces the emerging view that Pleistocene environmental change can have diverse impacts on genetic structure and diversity in different biomes.
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Decline of a biome: Evolution, contraction, fragmentation, extinction and invasion of the Australian mesic zone biota
Margaret Byrne,Dorothy A. Steane,Leo Joseph,David K. Yeates,Gregory J. Jordan,Darren M. Crayn,Ken Aplin,David J. Cantrill,Lynette Gai Cook,Michael D. Crisp,J. Scott Keogh,Jane Melville,Craig Moritz,Nicholas Porch,J. M. Kale Sniderman,Paul Sunnucks,Peter H. Weston +16 more
TL;DR: The aims are to review and refine key hypotheses derived from palaeoclimatic data and the fossil record that are critical to understanding the evolution of the Australian mesic biota and examine predictions arising from these hypotheses using available molecular phylogenetic and phylogeographical data.
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Phylogeny of sex-determining mechanisms in squamate reptiles: are sex chromosomes an evolutionary trap?
TL;DR: It is concluded that to date there is no known well-documented transition from GSD to TSD in reptiles, although transitions in the opposite direction are plentiful and well corroborated by cytogenetic evidence.
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Phylogeny of iguanian lizards inferred from 29 nuclear loci, and a comparison of concatenated and species-tree approaches for an ancient, rapid radiation.
Ted M. Townsend,Daniel G. Mulcahy,Brice P. Noonan,Jack W. Sites,Caitlin A. Kuczynski,John J. Wiens,Tod W. Reeder +6 more
TL;DR: The phylogenetic results suggest a non-traditional biogeographic scenario in which pleurodonts originated in the Northern Hemisphere and subsequently spread southward into South America.
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